Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus)Status/Trend/Population (2008): No reliable estimatesThreats: Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation; persecution for real and perceived livestock loss of human life and crops; unsustainable demand for body parts; live capture and sale; absence of population study

NOTE: The polar bear is not listed here. Current assessments are out-of-date, and were not performed accurately. The polar bear population is difficult to assess due in part to the harsh environments they reside in, and because it has become a political tool in the environmentalist war against oil and natural gas. Thus, unbiased assessments of their populations do not currently exist. However, Inuit natives report that polar bears are an increasingly common sight, and appear to be thriving.

SIMILAR STAMPS

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Bears rule. They walked along side the Natives of America and protected the forest. They are majestic, strong, and amazing. Yeah, I probably sound like a bear a boo, but after devoting about 12 of my weekend to researching these creatures, I have a new found respect for them. I just honor them and their land mark on ancient America. Its good to find straight forward estimates of them. Every endangered animal is unique, and they need to be loved and respected. Go ahead and do research about them and learn about what they meant to a culture, interesting facts about them and support rehabilitation of injured animals. Hey, if humans can do damage, they sure as hell can help. For every poachers in it only for the money, theres a veterinarian easing the pain of an elephant's broken foot.

Sure, its a good idea to stay away from a bear who you might be invading its territory (especially if she's a mom protecting her cubs), but don't let that scare you from learning about them. And remember, most of us had a teddy bear to ease our fears of the dark.

I'm glad you like the stamp, but I'm not sure how you intend to get people to take you seriously when your opening statement is that bears "walked along side the Natives of America and protected the forest," because that's about the point I stopped reading to roll my eyes into the back of my head. Bears are just bears. Lighten up on the pseudo-spiritual nonsense and just appreciate them for what they are.

Bears are such beautiful creatures, and yet many of them are hunted down and blamed for trespassing even though it is humans that go barging into their territories and destroying their natural habitats...

Actually, Pandas aren't considered actual bears, a lot of resources say that it's more related to the raccoon family than anything else, but anyway, yes! Save the bears and pandas! but most bears are in a good place pandas if you count them as a bear need some help well a lot of help

I heard one reason they're being spotted more by native tribes is polar bears are moving south due to lack of ice up north, I'm not sure. However Polar and Brown bears are the only bear species to interbreed in the wild, and in captivity both male and female offspring are fertile. Do you believe genetic pollution may become a more significant threat in the future? The term is propping up a lot more than often nowadays.

It's also good that you listed the sun bear as well. It's the ONLY bear here in Indonesia, and even here it's not that famous. Maybe just for an add on, one reason why it's declining is the illegal pet trade (it's both the tamest and smallest, an instant victim).

Spectacled bear too! Imagine that, a South American bear and the closest thing to Arctodus Simus (even if it looks like a pipsqueak next to it...)

We can't be sure, because there hasn't been a population assessment for years, and frankly, the polar bear has just become such a tool in the war against oil and energy that I wouldn't trust any assessment that came out. Environmentalists won't let us safely drill in the Rockies or the arctic, but they prefer deep-water drilling, which is extremely risky, and increases the chances of an uncontainable oil spill immensely. And every bad story about oil is good for their agenda. Like with what happened with BP.

Genetic pollution is always a threat to a species facing extinction. Conservation groups tried to save the "red wolf," but as it would turn out, the species was so diluted with dog and coyote, that it's not even a wolf anymore. If genetic pollution truly becomes a problem, Brown bears and Polar bears will likely go the way of the Barred and Spotted owls. The Spotted owls were declared "endangered" in a political move by environmentalists to keep loggers out of forests. Barred owls started mating with the spotted owls, and out-competing them for food and territory. If the spotted owls ceased to be pure, or they were all killed by the barred owls, they would lose their protection status, and logging would be open again. So, what's the solution? Shoot the barred owls to keep the land locked away from loggers. It's a horrible abuse of taxpayer dollars and a waste of our resources. But, anyway, I don't think that genetic pollution is prevalent enough in polar bears to raise any red flags right now, but should it ever come to fruition, expect a spike in brown bear hunting.

Deep water? DEEP WATER? After BP and Exxon and all that? Some still want DEEP WATER! That's genuinely surprising (and infuriating) for me! I mean really, after all this time, after all that effort, they STILL want Deep water. Lives of fishermen were ruined, birds couldn't fly and that shark from the gulf had his/her gills clogged and some people STILL believe... Deep Water Drilling iz guud... I actually think they're just as much in it for the money and publicity like BP and any other oil company. The logic doesn't make sense. As someone who studies business, logically speaking you would want to drill in the most isolated, barren place because it does not support that much of an ecosystem. It also costs less for maintenance considering the damaging effects saltwater has on metals. The ocean forms the basis for ALL ecosystems, one slip up and its all over!

The bear thing was actually something interesting thing I studied for ecology class on the role of tertiary consumers. Got the original information from the BBC, said case was explored later in other websites. At first it became a way to study heredity of different species (never knew Polar bears are really just very, very recent descendents of brown bears from Europe)... then other articles warped it into an argument of how "baaaad" humans are.

But that story about owls is pretty sad. The spotted owl isn't even that far above "Low Risk" in the IUCN. To say that they are "endangered" is absurd. Who are these people anyway? Most of these "movements" tend to have no relation to any major conservation group. It's sad that because of this logic that one species of owl is being outcompeted and interbreeding because of some group of so-called "environmentalists".

I live in Florida, so believe me when I say I know just how bad the suffering was. Our food, our wildlife, our beaches, our oceanfront economy--ruined. Another problem was that the TransOcean rig inspectors gave BP's rigs a pass without thorough inspection. So, technically, it wasn't BP's fault. Of course, environmentalists would rather there be NO drilling EVER, but if they had to tolerate one kind, it would likely be deep water. Ironic, I know.

It's a land-grab move, trying to keep people from using the land and its resources, simply because they can. More and more, we are putting the rights of animals above the rights of ourselves, and it's only proving to be disastrous. Loggers were banned from the areas surrounding the Gila National Forest in NM because of "endangered" animals, and thanks to all the dead trees and dry brush, the fire was able to spread rapidly. The fire consumed everything in it's path, and was at 0% containment for what felt like forever. If loggers had been allowed to use that land, the fire would not have spread as far as it did. If we do not use our resources, we lose them.

Yeah... First rule in business... ALWAYS INSPECT... Why do you think there's quality control? To make things pretty? No. It's so people won't get hurt in the process. Can't imagine what it's like being there, must be dreadful. The closest that I ever got was going to the region of the "mud volcano" caused by nat-gas drillers who didn't know what they were doing. Never seen so many lives and homes ruined in one area with my own eyes.

It was discussing these topics with you! I have to do go do homework now, working on an animation project that's essential for my college application. Hope we can discuss more in the future! It was thrilling and I learned a lot .

I could cry just thinking about the poor things... :C between poaching, "dancing bears", habitat destruction, and all that rubbish... I feel so bad for them.. T^T I wish there was more I could do for them than just signing petitions..

Awesome! I love bears soooo much! I rented a book from my local library on these guys... they are so loveable! Did you know that the brown bear is sacred to Finnish Pagans? I hope to see a real brown bear one day in the wild.

(I accidentally added this cool stamp to my Hetalia folder! My apologies... I will move it... I like the stamp you made about bile farming too... I think bile farming is a very nasty thing... )

Bears are fun. Don't think I've had the opportunity to see a bear in person, but I'd like to. There are no zoos in my city, and it's a long drive if you want to get to one. And even then, they don't have any bears there. :C

That's okay. And thanks. Yeah, I was ill just reading about that stuff. Makes me sick. :/

I've always loved the Asian black bear. This animal is basically what bears would have looked like millions of years ago before becoming the heavyweights of the northern hemisphere. They're also plucky beasts that'll take on tigers if they have to. Plus, there is a beautiful golden phase living in Indochina.

I will tell you something interesting: i have a rather old documentary "Kingdom of Russian bear" that tells about various regions of Russia and animals that live there. It was made in 1992. There was an episode that had polar bears hunting walruses because winter was warm and ice didn't form in time it should. Not so long ago i saw a nearly identical footage on Animal Planet. This sets me thinking, what else was faux. Because Global Warming is one for sure - there were several articles about this on the web and it was in the news - i forgot how this agency is called (not NASA but sounds similar) but thing is that they faked temperature reports for 30 years! All because they were afraid that their funding will be cut.

I think you're referring to the incident known affectionately as "Climategate," when NASA and the NOAA were discovered to have been falsifying climate reports for years and years. It's not necessarily that they were afraid of their funding being cut, it's more that they had an agenda to fulfill. The "global warming" scare has proven to be one of the most profitable scams known to man. Manmade global warming is a lie for sure, but we still need to accurately assess the polar bear population so that it can be properly managed.